The Chronicles of Articia; Children of the Dead. K.D. Enos

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СКАЧАТЬ to greet them. However, her motherly demeanor did not fool the twins.

      "The point of this affair is for your brothers to be cheered, not their younger siblings." Her voice was icy and meant to be harsh. Having dealt with this their whole lives, they knew what to do.

      "I'm sure they will, mother," Alec started, "because the attire that you acquired in Cyrus for our brothers…"

      "… is sure to leave all of the nobles in the hall in jealous admiration," Ava finished, not even bothering to look at her mom.

      Alec and Ava had been finishing each other's sentences for years. This canny ability is one of the unusual traits that the goddess gave to the Artician twins. The queen found this trait charming in her youngest children and the pair used it to soften her mood whenever they found themselves in a tough spot, and the twins frequently found themselves in a tough spot.

      Their mother sighed. Queen Angelica of Articia looked more like a mother than a queen as she straightened her son's cloak and pushed a lock of Ava's hair behind her ear. She smiled as she turned back to their father.

      "Nice job on Alec's hair, Ava." The queen commented as the corners of Ava's mouth turned up slightly and Aleczander's face turned a slight shade of red.

      Before Ava had a chance to tease him, the front doors flew open with a bang, and in walked Tristan and Dominic, clad in the magnificent gold and silver of the royal family. The only ones allowed to wear such brilliant colors on that day were Dominic, Tristan, and their mother and father. Ava and Aleczander would not normally include such extravagance in their wardrobes until they came of age at sixteen.

      Dominic took a seat next to Ava and Tristan sat next to Alec. All of her children surrounded Queen Angelica. The king sat alone at a solitary table, according to a tradition that had begun a millennium ago when Articia consisted of mostly nomadic tribes and the leader of the tribe sat alone above the rest of the tribe. Later in the evening, Dominic would leave his mother's side at the table and sit at the right hand of the king. This would be the symbol of succession for the royal family. The King and his heir sit alone at their own table at all royal functions. Dom now sat at the table with the king as a symbol of the royal succession.

      Of course, the funniest thing about the formal occasions was that they did not match the preferred life of the royals. The family usually took their meals at a table in the kitchens, a most informal setting. It was especially cozy in the winter when the cook fires warmed the area, making it the warmest and most comfortable location in Castle Articia. Though it was unusual for any royal family to eat in a kitchen, the king treated the entire castles workforce as part of his extended family. There is no one in his employ whose name and story he does not know. It is because of this that so many ordinary folk are devoted to the king. It is why they all take up arms to defend the king and country so readily whenever needed. He is noble and distant when he is required to be, but openly friendly to his subjects when not involved in matters of the state.

      It was unusual that there was only a high king in Articia. It has always been a tradition and necessity to have large royal families to manage the significant amount of territory in the kingdom. A plague had afflicted Articia when King Henry was a young man and all of his siblings and his mother succumbed to its deadly effect. As a result, for a relatively brief time in Articia's long history, Articia had only one king. When Henry suddenly became king, his advisors quickly worked with him to return stability to the kingdom. The council set up baronies and a subordinate noble system to manage the growing needs of the plague-devastated kingdom of Articia. Most of the current barons in Articia are not directly related to the royal family. Now, the system was engrained and the current nobles wanted to maintain and even increase their power in the management of their territories and over the people who resided on their lands.

      Their fear of losing their lands, authority, and status grew as the king's family grew. The animosity now heightened on Dominic's ascension; when a royal child reached such a rite of passage as the First Excursion, there would be talk of awarding him a territory and anointing him a king thereof. Speculation arose as to which pieces of whose territory might be reclaimed for this purpose.

      Alec watched as Ava affectionately pushed a blonde curl back from Dominic's eyes. Alec and Ava had always been an oddity when it came to appearance. Their parents had blonde and light brown hair. The family was known for their deep blue eyes as well. But Alec and Ava had coal black hair and stormy gray eyes.

      "How long do you think you will be gone, Dom?" Ava inquired.

      Alec realized she was already worrying about the year in which princes who came of age traveled the kingdom to prove themselves worthy of the throne. Dom would not leave for a week at least; the feast was not even over yet and she was already worrying about him. Alec shook his head. Even as a toddler, Ava had fawned over her older brothers.

      "I will be gone only for about six turns of the moon, Ava," Dom replied. "I couldn't stay away from my favorite sister for a full year."

      "You mean your only sister," she said as she beamed at him.

      The first course of the meal was collard greens, neither liked, nor consumed, by the royal children. Unfortunately, this lack of interest in the current course of sustenance usually left the royal children open to other activities. Tristan and Ava were using their inherent magic to annoy the royal chamberlain across the table with minor pyrotechnics.

      The exasperated sigh from the chamberlain caught the attention of King Henry, who glared at the pair of siblings. The chamberlain suffered frequently from the antics of Tristan and Ava. Alec just smiled, knowing that Ava and Tristan's were just too mischievous to restrain themselves and their actions would be replayed many times tonight.

      Alec often wondered about the blessing of magical capabilities. It seemed that the goddess bestowed the gift of cerebral arts completely randomly. The goddess had also bestowed a gift on his father and mother. Tris wondered why he and Dominic did not share their gift of sorcery. Though he sometimes thought he might enjoy the use of magical powers, he did not envy the free time his sister and brother lost to learning magical control.

      As Alec was absentmindedly monitoring his sister, he looked across the room to admire Princess Kaitlin, who had traveled from the neighboring kingdom of Cyrus to participate in the annual Artician festival. When his glance swung back to Ava, Alec saw his sister's eyes turn from their normal gray to a light blue. "Ava, your eyes," he whispered.

      She stopped and sighed as the color in her eyes slowly changed back. Ava was unique in both her appearance and her skills. Shortly after she had started to exhibit signs that she had magical talent; it became obvious that she had more power than most. Ava had other unique abilities that none who practiced the arts in the past had ever revealed. Most remarkable, and unique, was the change in the color of her eyes.

      When Ava started her magical discipline training, they discovered that her eyes would change colors as she progressed through various difficulties of the arts she performed. When she executed rather simple acts of sorcery, her eyes would change from gray to light blue. The magical scholars tested every extreme of her magical capabilities and discovered that there was a progression, from light blue to light violet, light violet to green, green to light brown, light brown to dark violet, and dark violet to a blazing gold.

      When Ava had reached the golden stage, all hell broke loose. She lost complete control and wild magic erupted from her body. Fortunately, the magical scholars were the ones to discover this about Ava and were able to contain her power; otherwise, she may have destroyed the entire castle and everyone in it. At that point, King Henry had put her into a strict magical training program so that she would learn to control her magical capabilities.

      Despite a considerable amount of СКАЧАТЬ